Loose feeling tooth- ie if you take your fingers and shake them, they feel looser than normal

Thin looking gums

Gums that bleed easily under little pressure

My experience:

My set of teeth had always given me problems. Food seemed to easily get stuck and later, I would find myself down with a massive toothache. It is basically due to infection from rotted food that got itself stuck- and the infection would spread to my throat (sore throat), eyes (itchy or painful eyes), head (headache), nose (sinus and cold) and earache. The extend of the pain or infection increases exponentially with stress. The more stressed up I am, the further the tooth infection spread throughout.

That is why it puzzles me that when I was not being stressed up, these conditions does not flare up much.

And I have always brushed my teeth and it puzzles me why it happens. Why there is susceptibility towards tooth infection. If you are also experiencing the same predicament, together with seemingly loose teeth (ie when you shake them, they seemed to be loose even though not to the extend that they are coming off) plus gums that easily bleed (not always due to scurvy as developed countries seldom have this condition anymore) you could be having PERIODONTITIS.

I was told that I could have this condition by a dentist that I went to. Prior to my trip overseas, I was experiencing some tooth discomfort- and did not want to suffer a massive toothache. I went to this dentist and asked him to check if I had any unfilled tooth that could have caused food to rot there. He examined my teeth and told me that I do not have any holes in my teeth.

But he had noticed one thing- when he used the air brush (sorry, I am not sure what’s that tool that pushes out high pressure air is called), he noticed that the high pressure air also moved my gums. He said that normal healthy gums is not that soft- and flutter with air pressure. When he moved the tools to check on any plaque, my gums just bled with the light poking.

He told me it is likely that I had periodontitis- which is a gum condition. There is no cure for this condition, all we can do is to control the gums from deteriorating to the extend that it can no longer support the teeth and the teeth starts to go out of place or start to fall off. So far, my usual regular dentist was not aware of this because my teeth and gums, on the outward, looks normal.

But this new dentist explained that my recurring infections could be due to weakness in my gums- as such, food may get stuck easily in between my teeth and not necessary due to a filling problem. I also remember that there were few occasions that I had felt discomfort and went to my regular dentist- he could not find anything wrong with my teeth.

The treatment to control the condition would involve what he called as ‘gum management’. Not sure what it is but I plan to follow up with the dentist soon….

If you do have the symptoms that I’ve mentioned, do ask your dentist about it.